In the wee hours of October 31, 2025, the Illinois State Senate passed legislation to legalize physician assisted suicide. The House passed the bill in May, so the legislation now goes to Governor Pritzker. If he signs or if the bill sits for 60 days once received by him with no action, it will become law, effective June 1, 2026. Illinois would become the 12th state to legalize the horror of helping someone end their life for the sake of patient autonomy, personal choice, and warped compassion.
Stop Assisted Suicide Illinois, the coalition led by Patients Rights’ Action Fund and the Catholic Conference of Illinois, urges us to contact Gov. Pritzker to veto the legislation. The coalition includes organizations that represent disability rights, patients’ rights, health care, civil rights and various faith-based advocacy organizations — including each Catholic diocese in the state.
In working with this coalition, I have harkened back on my professional experience before ministry, where I worked for more than a decade in non-profit communications. Back in the day, I relied on the maxim: “Know your audience.” For communication to be most effective, we must tailor the message to the knowledge, needs, and beliefs of your audience.
The Parable of the Sower may be the biblical equivalent of “know your audience” (Matthew 13:1-9). The sower spreads the seed of the Word of God. Whether the Word takes root depends on the type of soil it lands upon. The seed that falls upon the path, in rocky ground, or among thorns fails to root or be fruitful. Only the seed, the Word of God, the Gospel of Life, sowed upon rich soil takes root, produces fruit, and multiples.
To stop assisted suicide, we must know our audience. Especially with assisted suicide, the experience of advocacy in other states has taught us that most public officials will not respond to Catholic teachings: hastening or facilitating ending any human life is immoral; actions that intentionally shorten life, even in the midst of suffering, cheapen human dignity and lead to a culture where some life is treated as more valuable; devaluing life enables financial costs and the judged usefulness of a life to be used as false measures to reduce or stop medical care. We must instead craft our messaging so that it can take root amidst secular hearts that are not receptive to Catholic truth.
Contact the Governor. Lead your message with secular, yet true, arguments such as:
Legalizing assisted suicide exposes vulnerable individuals — especially those with handicaps, the elderly, the infirm, and the poor — to manipulation and possible abuse.
The American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and dozens of medical groups, including the Illinois State Medical Society oppose assisted suicide.
Physician assisted suicide is suicide. Illinois should not willfully add to the mental health crisis. Individuals who contemplate suicide, including the terminally ill, can suffer from treatable mental disorders, such as clinical depression.
Building “safeguards” into this legislation distracts from the real question this legislation poses: Does each human being have the right to the highest common good? Every human community has built itself on the recognition of this basic human right. The state of Illinois should not undermine the common good.
A better way forward is to expand mental and social support programs in the state and to expand the number and availability of palliative care programs in Illinois.
Speak these truths to the Governor, then stand confidently in the Truth and proclaim to the Governor the Gospel of Life as only we can.
Contact Gov. Pritzker now. Urge a veto. Our lives
